I haven’t looked at this in-depth but there was a major problem with mcap in that it wasn’t matched to the curriculum, so it was a worthless test for one or two cycles. I’m forgetting the years of the adjustments but it had to do with the whole Pearson problem. There was a year where the schools were required by law to administer it but everyone knew it would not be used and was not meaningful—even the kids—so I think there was extremely little effort put in. Does anyone remember whether this was last year or the year before? It’s all a blur at this point. Look to the MAP, that is a slightly better indicator (and shows learning loss but still shows kids doing pretty well). The McAp saying they don’t meet standards is meaningless when the county had already decided to jettison the standards contained in the mcap because they were found to be so poorly matched to actual learning.

Anonymous wrote:And does anybody know what these numbers were pre-COVID?

Here ya go:

https://reportcard.msde.maryland.gov/Graphs/#/Assessments/ElaPerformance/1EL/3/6/3/1/99/XXXX/2019

Anonymous wrote:And does anybody know what these numbers were pre-COVID?

Here is the link to the score interpretation guide from 2019, the last time they gave it: https://support.mdassessments.com/resources/reporting/MCAP2019ScoreInterpretationGuide.pdf

Anonymous wrote:I think part of the problem is thinking of it as learning loss - a done deal - rather than viewing it as a need to adjust curriculum and standards across the board to allow for catching up.

Do you really think every kid is capable of that kind of accelerated curriculum across all classes?

I think part of the problem is thinking of it as learning loss - a done deal - rather than viewing it as a need to adjust curriculum and standards across the board to allow for catching up.

And does anybody know what these numbers were pre-COVID?

Anonymous wrote:This is so sad. And it feels like the system doesn't have the flexibility to address the learning loss... It's moving ahead with all the benchmarks, tests, expectations put in place pre-COVID. How will these kids catch up?

How do you catch up an entire class year across so many students? Essentially, you'd need compacted math, but in every subject and the kids actually capable of doing that level work aren't the ones behind

This is so sad. And it feels like the system doesn't have the flexibility to address the learning loss... It's moving ahead with all the benchmarks, tests, expectations put in place pre-COVID. How will these kids catch up?

Anonymous wrote:Are these results sent home with the student?

It came in a large envelope in the mail.

Are these results sent home with the student?

My child’s results just came in and they were abysmal. Fifth grader and for English she scored a 22, approached expectations and for math she scored a 10. Met expectations. Terrible.

6th Grader said they did not recognize a single problem on the first section of the test, and my HS student said that the (state mandated) test instructions did not include how to use the test functions, which, if you figured it out on your own, included important formulas. So, not only did the students miss instruction, but also the administration of the test wasn't top notch.

I believe they used to say “Did not meet expectations”.

These results are very, very sad and I’d like to know what the state is going to do to help all these kids to meet expectations.

Well, having missed 1+ years of school, this isn't a surprise.

Just received in the mail fall 2021's MCAP results.

MCAP = Maryland Comprehensive Assessment Program

It has a section called "How Students in Maryland Performed."

For Grade 4 level:

Math

Approached Expectations: 79%
Met Expectations: 12%
Exceeded Expectations: 9%

ELA

Approached Expectations: 77%
Met Expectations: 21%
Exceeded Expectations: 2%


Basically nearly 80% of Maryland's current 5th graders do not demonstrate grade level understanding.